Areas of responsibility

As Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Vice-President (Research), Professor Harch is responsible for enhancing the University’s performance and reputation in research, research training, and research collaboration with external stakeholders, nationally and internationally.

Biography

Professor Bronwyn Harch is an applied statistician with 22 years experience leading and undertaking research focused at the nexus of agricultural and environmental systems. She is passionate about making an impact by generating knowledge, technology and practices that make our world more sustainable, secure and resilient.

Before joining UQ in July 2018, Professor Harch was Executive Director of the Institute for Future Environments at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She was also the establishment Research Director of the Australian Government Cooperative Research Centre on ‘Food Agility’ – a transdisciplinary partnership with industry aimed at growing the agrifood sector’s comparative advantage through digital transformation. Prior to joining QUT in 2014, Professor Harch worked for 18 years as a researcher and research strategist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Professor Harch’s own research has focused on the statistical design of landscape-scale sampling protocols and monitoring programs, as well as the statistical modelling of complex systems, particularly agri-environmental systems. She has developed transdisciplinary research; engagement and commercialisation strategies; and partnerships with state and federal governments and their agencies, Australian and multinational companies, and other research organisations.

Professor Harch is a member of Innovation Science Australia (ISA), The Great Barrier Reef Independent Science Panel (ISP), the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) Advisory Board, and the Plant Phenotyping and Imaging Research Centre (University of Saskatchewan) International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC).